A method is known for structuring, texturing or coloring the surface of a textile web which uses localized irradiation of the surface of the web with energy-carrying rays, to activate or form active sites at locations on the web in association with particular monomers. This results in cross linking.
This localized irradiation of the surface of the web is carried out according to one well-known method by irradiating the web through a template that prevents the rays from falling on those portions of the web which are not to be patterned. Such an arrangement makes it very difficult to produce textures or colored fabrics at high speed, as displacement of the template and/or the source of radiation synchronously with the web is extremely difficult. Thus such a method is only applicable to the stationary treatment of such webs.
It has also been suggested to effect local free-radical formation by means of an electron beam whose intensity is controlled as it scans over the surface of the web. The extremely complicated electronic control system necessary for carrying out this type of scanning considerably raises the cost of the product and also requires that the web move at relatively slow speed so that again production costs are elevated.
These methods all have the disadvantage that they are relatively limited as to their types of application. A further disadvantage of these methods is that none of them allows several different kinds of coagulating or otherwise associatively-reactable compounds to be applied to different areas on the same web in a single operation. Thus it is necessary to employ different steps with different templates and the like to achieve varying effects over a single web. Another disadvantage of the known methods is that a great portion of the associatively-reactable compound is lost, as these are almost invariably applied homogeneously and uniformly over the entire surface of the web and the unused portions are wasted.